The Last Night
by brutally.bored
Summary: Rachel shows up on Santana's doorstep to say goodbye. Loosely based on 'The last night' by Skillet.
1. Chapter 1

**This is kind of based on 'The last night' by Skillet. **

**I'll warn you know they say fuck like...twice in here. Not a big deal but whatever. **

**I don't own glee, the characters, or skillet's song. yay. **

A knock on my door pulled me away from the movie on screen, I looked at my clock and my eyes widened. It's almost 3 am. Who would be knocking on my door at this hour?

I got up from the couch and walk to my closet, opening it and grabbing the baseball bat out of it before walking to my front door. Whoever knocked was knocking again, it was a weak knock but loud enough to notice and it made me nervous. I open the door with my bat at the ready only to drop it on the floor when the door revealed Rachel Berry.

She was crying, shaking, and her eyes were darting all over the place. She was wringing her hands, pulling her long sleeves over her hands, and she looked like she could break down any minute. She bit her lips before she finally looked up and met my gaze. I shivered when I noticed the sadness and utter defeat swirling in her brown eyes.

"Rachel...what..."

"Hello Santana, I..i'm fine."

Lie. She's lying to me.

"I just came by to see you. I'm sorry about the time."

"It's fine Rachel, but what's up?" I ask slowly taking a step toward her.

She steps back. "Nothing. I just wanted to see you one last time, I didn't mean to be crying but it's hard to control at this point."

"Rachel...what do you mean one last time?"

"I just wanted to say goodbye Santana. I haven't seen you since summer started so I needed to see you. One goodbye hug okay?"

She walks forward before wrapping her arms around my neck and hugging me tight. I wrap my arms around her and hug her as tight as I can.

My instincts screaming that I should not let her go.

So I don't.

She tries to pull away from me but I refuse, the position of my arms making it hard for her to get away.

"Santana..." She sounds so sad...so defeated.

"Go somewhere with me."

"Wh-where?" Now she just sounds startled.

"Anywhere. I'll drive. Please."

I pull away slightly and she bites her lip before looking down and slightly nodding her head. I lean down to look into her eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Okay, I'll go somewhere with you San."

"Awesome." I smile before gently grabbing her hand and pulling her into my house. She stands in my living room as I turn off the television and slip my shoes on. I don't want to risk Rachel changing her mind when I go to change my clothes, so sweatpants, messy bun, tank top and all, I grab my car keys and look at her.

"Ready?"

She nods her head and follows me out of the house I walk to the passenger side door and open it with a cheesy grin. She smiles a little bit before getting in. I close the door before walking to the drivers side and thinking of anything that is even open at this time of morning.

I get in and start the car before pulling out and driving.

It's silent. The radio isn't even on.

I'm glad, it gives me time to think. I'm glad my parents went away for the weekend so they could meet some of dad's potential clients. I don't trust Rachel to go home tonight. Even if her parents are home. Hell her parent's could be the reason she's like this. I tighten my grip on the wheel. Rachel talking about it being the 'last night' and saying goodbye for the last time scares me. I will admit it, I'm scared to death at this point. I don't even want to think of Rachel doing something stupid because of how sad she seems to be. My knuckles turn white as I start thinking of what's open right now. Something pops into my head and I start driving toward it. My hands are starting to ache when Rachel reaches over grabs my right hand and starts rubbing circles on the back of it.

Almost instantly I feel the tension drain from my body and I start to calm down. I drive into the parking lot of a 24 hour diner and turn the car off. Neither of us make any move to go inside.

"You know I need answers right?"

"I know. But seriously Santana, I'm fine. I'm ready."

She's lying again. She's not fine. And I don't even want to think of what she's ready for.

"I need answers Rachel."

She looks out the window before sighing.

"Fine."

I nod and get out of the car before walking to her side and opening the door. She gets out and stands in front of me.

We just watch each other, we don't make any effort to stare but we do make sure we look into each others eyes. I can see her fighting herself on the inside. She doesn't want to let me in.

I have to make sure she does.

We walk inside to see absolutely no one inside the place except for the waitress who looks stereotypical. Complete with the loud smacking of the gum. She rolls her eyes when she sees us. Rachel and I sit at a booth and watch each other again.

"Best coffee in town here." I murmur quietly.

The waitress comes over and we order coffee and an extra large order of fries.

Still silent when the waitress walks away.

The food and coffee comes before the waitress disappears into the back.

I eat a fry when the silence is finally broken.

"Since I was born I was shaped to be the perfect performer. My mother was a Broadway performer and my dads adopted me with hopes that I could get them famous. Whenever I did something wrong in any way shape or form I was beaten. I was told that everything wrong in their lives was my fault, I'm the reason they are social pariahs, I'm the reason my daddy's parents won't talk to him, I'm the reason dad was beat up as a teenager. Everything is my fault."

She bites her lip and looks out the window before sighing and continuing.

"After my nose was broken they started to back off a little. Only yelling at me every night. But it's gotten worse lately, they burn me, choke me and kick me. I told them I was sad...they told me it was just a phase and that I would be okay. That night the baseball bat was taken out. They took turns until morning and left me in the basement while they left to San Diego. That's where they've been for the past month. I was thinking of everything tonight when school popped into my head, and then I thought of Shelby not wanting me, the need to be the perfect performer, and my fathers and then...I just can't any more Santana."

She looks up at me with tears forming in her eyes again. I meet her gaze before nodding and getting up. I her her sign again before I walk to her side, sit down and pull her into a tight hug. She's stiff for a couple of seconds before the she breaks. She's shaking again and mumbling to herself. I'm holding her as tightly as I could as plans start forming in my head. I can feel the growing wetness on my shirt before I speak.

"You'll spend the night at my house today. Tomorrow we will go get your clothes. You're going to be living with me until we go off to college, Okay?"

She pulls back and looks at me with wide eyes. before furiously shaking her head.

"Santana I can't ask you to do that."

"Good thing you didn't ask then."

"I can't ruin your household too."

"You couldn't ruin anything."

"I'm poison."

"That's obviously a lie."

"My parents would never let me."

"If they say anything I will turn them into the cops faster than they can start yelling."

"I..." She sighs when she can't think of anything else to say.

"Done fighting me?" I ask with a small smile.

"A...Are you sure Santana?" She asks finally.

"As sure as I can be."

I pull her in for a hug again when she doesn't reply. I expected some more fighting over the issue. That's when I realize the waitress came back out. She's behind the booth trying to be nonchalant about watching us.

Oh. Okay. Guess she's going to fight me about it later.

She pulls back and snuggles into my side before grabbing her coffee and taking a sip.

I wrap my arm around her and eat a french fry.

It's silent as we finish the food.

When we finally finish I get up and grab her hand pulling her up with me before dropping a few bills on the table and leading her out of the restaurant. I look at the sky, the sun is just starting to peek over the horizon. We must have been in that restaurant for alot longer than I thought.

I pull Rachel to the car and open the door for her before smiling a little. She smiles back before letting go of my hand and getting in.

I close the door before walking to my side, getting in and starting the car. I start driving to my house.

More silence.

We pull up to my house and get inside, really I'm just waiting for the dam to break and for Rachel to either start yelling or crying or something. She agreed to live with me entirely to fast and easy.

"Well I guess I should be getting home now." Rachel says before she starts walking back toward the front door.

"Whoa." I jog to get in front of her before blocking the doorway and crossing my arms over my chest. "I thought we established you were staying here."

"And I thought it was implied I couldn't ask you to do that."

"And I said you weren't asking so it's fine."

"You don't get to do this Santana..." I barely heard her whisper that last part but I caught it.

"Do what?"

She looks up at me with tears in her eyes once again. Only this time, instead of sadness shining through, it's anger.

"You don't get to come in here and be the knight in shining armor!"

"I'm not-"

"NO. You act like you care now but where were you when my parents beat me, when I was attacked at school for being the glee club kid with no friends, where were you when I got depressed and stopped caring about _Everything_. Where were you when I finally gave up?"

I opened my mouth to reply but nothing but air came out. I was expecting a break down but not this. She's fully crying now, but I can tell she's trying to hold herself together.

"Now you finally figure out that i'm basically over the edge. Only because I showed up _crying _on your _doorstep. _Telling you I'm done with life and wanted to see you one last time and then _f__inally y_ou come in and try to _save me_? No, Santana it doesn't fucking work like that. You can't just save someone who has already lost _everything._ So stop trying, because I'm already lost, I don't need you. I don't need anybody!"

Rachel finally stops yelling before her knees give out under her. I rush forward and pull her into my arms before we both hit the floor. She's on top of my lap hitting my chest with her fists mumbling 'no' over and over again. I'm not letting her go. She can hit me and leave bruises for all I care.

I let her beat my chest until she finally stops and starts whimpering. I pull her closer to me and hug her as tight as I can. I bite my lip to stop my own tears from falling from the pain in my chest, both from how broken the girl in my arms is and how hard she beat me just now. At least she got her anger out, hopefully it's gone. She's shaking and still whimpering in my arms when I use all the strength left in my body to somehow pick the both of us off the floor and get us into my bedroom.

We're laying on my bed an hour later with the sunlight streaming through my windows when Rachel finally speaks again.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

She shifts on top of me to look at my face when I wince. Her eyes widen before she lifts my shirt and takes it off of me to see the bruises that are either forming or are already there. She gasps before lifting her hand to feel some of them. "This is not fine, why would you let me do this..." She says more to herself than to me.

I pull her to lay down on my chest again with my shirt still off. She hugs me back this time.

"Because I care about you Rachel. I love you even though you don't know it. I have noticed how bad you were doing at school but I was to much of a fucking pansy to do a damn thing about it and the guilt is now killing me inside. I know you said you're lost but I am determined to do absolutely anything it takes to find you again, starting with getting you out of that house of yours to live with me. I'm not letting you go through this alone anymore. I'm going to be here with you every single step of the way and I promise this is your last night away from me. Just please let me be here for you." I whimper when I finally finish, I want to cry but feel like I don't deserve to.

She nuzzles her face into my neck before kissing the side of it. "Can we go to sleep now?"

"Yeah. No problem." I pull the blanket over us and close my eyes, only for them to pop open a second later when I feel soft lips connect with mine.

"I love you too Santana, goodnight."

I don't reply. I just hug her and close my eyes again and let out a content sigh.

Yeah, she's not leaving my sight ever again.

**This kind of sucks, but it popped into my head when I was listening to the song 'The last night' by Skillet and boom here it is. **


	2. Chapter 2

I wake up the next morning to an empty bed and the over powering smell of breakfast. That has to be Rachel, no one else is here. I silently get out of bed and grab my phone before walking into my bathroom, locking the door and turning the water in the bathtub on before dialing a number on my phone. I listen to it ring as I watch the water start to fill the tub up. Finally after a few rings my mother's voice comes through the phone.

"Santana! Great to hear from you! How are you doing? Is something wrong? Why are you up before 12?"

I laugh before finally replying. "I am fine mami, Nothing is wrong, Rachel woke me up and I just need to talk to you and papi about something."

"Who is Rachel mija? What's up?" I hear my father's voice break through.

"Am I on speaker?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good this will be easier if you both hear it at one time. Rachel is my friend from school. I'm sure you two have heard of her before-"

"We have mija, you used to talk about her and her idiot boyfriend all the time after you ranted about her never feeling the same for you."

"Well. Yes that Rachel. Any way she came to me at 3 this morning and well...long story short I told her she could live here because her house is not safe. Like at all."

"Mija what is that girl going through?"

"It really isn't my place to say, let me just say I need to take pictures of the bruises so the fathers won't come after her."

When her parents didn't reply she kept going.

"I want her to live with us, I just wanted to run it by you two before you got home to another teenager in the house. I can't let her go back there." By now I was crying and I sniffled a few times before my mami finally answered.

"That's fine mija, I'm glad you are looking out for your friends, do you want us to come home early or something?"

"No that's fine, stay as long as you want, I just wanted you to know before you got here with a bag full of questions."

"No problem, go spend time with Rachel and call us if you need anything okay? We should be home in a couple of days."

"Okay papi, I love you guys."

"We love you too. We will talk to you later okay?"

"Okay, bye."

I hung up with my parents and turned the water off. Standing up I looked in the mirror and wiped my eyes off before sighing and walking toward the kitchen. When I got there I saw Rachel dancing around with my iPod headphones hanging from her ears, she was humming slightly as she flipped the pancakes and I just smiled and leaned on the door frame content to watch her be carefree for a couple of minutes. She shook her hips a little before she spun in a circle and stopped abruptly when she saw me. I grinned and clapped while she took an earphone out of her right ear.

"Good morning Santana. I made breakfast." She said with a small grin back at me.

"And got a good workout in I take it?"

"Yes, I didn't know you had wham on your ipod."

"It's one of those guilty pleasure songs"

"Ah, I see."

I walked up to her and grabbed the iPod before plugging it into the iHome on the counter and starting the song over again I took Rachel's hands and we started dancing again while singing along in the kitchen. We probably look like idiots, Oh well. As long as Rachel's happy, before I have to make things serious again. We hit the high notes together and played air instruments before we collapsed on the kitchen chairs laughing and breathing heavily.

"That was fantastic! We have to do that in glee when we go back!" Rachel said happily

I just smiled and nodded.

"Want to go eat the breakfast I made then?"

I nodded again and we got up and grabbed the food before walking into the living room and turning the tv on.

We watched a couple of re runs of friends before I finally spoke again. "Rach how many bruises do you have right now?"

Rachel looked at me before biting her lip and taking another bite of her eggs "Quite a few...why?"

"I need to take pictures of them."

"For what reason?"

"If your fathers decide to be royal assholes again I can say I have proof of their previous stupidity and make them back the fuck off."

"Got it...Most of the bruises are my torso and legs...so it wouldn't be to revealing to take the photos...but can we take them after we eat?" Rachel asked me with puppy dog eyes and I instantly caved.

"Of course."

She grinned before scooting over and cuddling into my side while we ate in content silence, nothing but the tv to break it. We finally finished and put the dished in the sink before walking to my room. I told her to take her shirt and pants off and to go into the bathroom before I walked over to my camera and grabbed it, following her.

She was look into the tub when I walked in and the breath caught in my throat. Her entire body was peppered with bruises, she was right when she said most of them were on her torso and legs but that doesn't stop the rest of her body from having smaller ones. The bruises on her torso ranged from tiny finger sized ones to bigger shoe sized ones with different colors, most of them purple and blue but some of them turning an ugly yellow green. I could feel my hands shaking before I looked down at them, they were holding the camera in a death grip. I must be angrier than I thought I was. I started breathing slowly to calm myself down when a softer pair of hands covered my own and took the camera from my hands, placing it by the sink before returning to my and wrapping around my neck. I was still shaking with rage when I wrapped my arms gently around Rachel's waist, barely touching her. She tightened her hold around my neck before speaking again.

"You can actually hold me Santana, I'm not going to break. I promise."

That's all I needed to hear. I tightened my arms around her waist and held her with all I could before nuzzling my face into her neck.

"I'm sorry this happened to you. I should have noticed earlier. Everyone should have noticed."

"You couldn't have noticed anything besides my being sad. I became a master at hiding bruises."

"I still should have noticed all of this with how much I used to watch you at school."

She was silent for a few seconds before replying.

"You watch me?"

"I did, before you got with Frankenteen. I stopped a while backafter I saw you gradually get sadder and because I couldn't stand seeing you with him."

"Why?"

"Well...It started off as hatred for him...I really can't stand that oversized idiotic oaf. But then it became jealousy...I hated the fact that he had you all to himself when that was all I wanted. So I stopped to save my own sanity."

Rachel stayed silent, we just stood in the middle of my bathroom holding each other for a few minutes before she kissed the side of my neck and then nuzzled the same spot.

"Well you don't need to worry about that anymore. Finn is dating someone else apparently and I am all yours."

I squeezed her before sighing softly. "I would love nothing more than to call you mine, but I'm not making you get into a relationship with me with all your going through...I don't want you to feel obligated because I'm letting you stay here as well. It's not fair to you either way."

She pulled back to look at me with our arms still holding each other. "That is very valiant of you Santana. But I know what I want. You're going to be here either way, so why make the both of us suffer by staying just friends?"

"I...Only if you're 100% sure Rachel."

She smiled before kissing me quickly. "I am, but we have stuff we need to do today. Like these pictures." She left one more lingering kiss on my lips before pulling away and grabbing the camera off the counter and handing it to me. "Are you taking pictures of my entire body or just where there are the most bruises?"

"Uhm. Where ever there is a bruise."

Rachel nodded before lifting her arms and turning around, exposing the back of her body to me and more bruises. The underwear and bra she had on covered some stuff but there were more than enough bruises on her back and legs to use as evidence. I took multiple pictures of her back, shoulders and legs before nudging her shoulder for her to turn around. When she turned our eyes met and she smiled lightly.

"Calm down Santana. I am safe, I won't get anymore bruises, you'll protect me and the bruises barely even hurt anymore."

"Yes there's that. There's also the fact I need to watch you because of those." I said nodding toward her upper arms, where here were multiple cuts, some fully healed some weeks old. No recent ones that I noticed.

She instantly crossed her arms and looked down. "I tried to stop. I haven't done it in weeks."

"I can see that, but still a precaution. I don't want you to feel like doing that anymore. You need to uncross your arms so I can finish taking the pictures."

She hesitantly uncrossed her arms and hid them behind her back while I took pictures. "I'm sorry."

"There's no reason for you to be sorry, you stopped and I'm proud of you for that." I finished taking the pictures and started looking them over on the screen when Rachel came up to me and wrapped her arms around my waist from my right side.

"So we need to go get clothes from my house now?"

I nodded. "Yes, we should go get dressed for that. Are your fathers home?"

"No, they shouldn't be."

"Good."

I walked out of the bathroom with Rachel on my heels before walking to my closet and pulling clothes out for me before going to my older clothes and pulling out stuff that should fit Rachel from freshman year.

I examine the bruises on my chest before pulling a shirt on and then changing my pants.

"You really should hate me for those bruises you know." Rachel says without looking at me.

"Nah, you needed to get your anger out. Hopefully there is no more. But if you do have more anger I'm more than happy to let you use me as a punching bag. I learned how to take bruises from cheerios anyway."

"I still shouldn't have done that."

"Water under the bridge."

"Fine. Ready to go?" She asks turning to me with a small smile on her face.

I grin at her. "You look cute with my clothes on. And yes, let's go get everything."

We lock up my house and get in the car before arriving to the berry's and seeing no car's in the driveway. "Rach I thought you had a car?"

"I did. They sold it after they realized I didn't deserve it."

She got out with me following and unlocked the door. I couldn't help but feel like I was stepping into the lions den as Rachel turned some lights on. I followed her to her room where she handed me a bag and told me to stuff as much of her clothing in it as I could. I nodded and started packing. I got everything from her dresser in the giant bag as she filled another bag with toiletries and other things. She closed the bag she was working on before looking around at all of her stuff.

"Come on let's go get these bags in the car so we can come back and grab your other things."

She nodded and followed me outside. We got the bags in the car before moving to her room again and grabbing all of her memories from her desk, walls, and shelves. Rachel found some boxes and put it all in there before we did a final survey of the room. There were only a few things here and there but nothing of any value. Rachel nodded and we started moving the boxes from her room to my car. We were in her room getting the last box when the front door slammed. Rachel looked at me with a shit load of fear in her eyes as a voice rung out through the house.

"Rachel? Sweetie whose car is that in the driveway?"

I locked my jaw, turned my phones on and pressed a few buttons before putting it back in my pocket and motioning for Rachel to follow me while she carried the last small box. We walked down the hallway and finally reached the living room right before we reached the door the voices came back.

"Rachel? What are you carrying?"

"Who is this?"

I turned around and pushed Rachel behind me as I met the faces of the Berry men.

"I am Santana Lopez and Rachel is carrying the last of her stuff. She's moving in with me today." I said with a sarcastic tone and finishing with an obviously fake smile.

The smaller Berry man looked between the two of us before he burst into tears. "Why would our star want to leave us?"

I scoffed. "Yeah your star told me everything. I know about how you two beat her when she did anything you consider wrong. You can cut the act now."

Both Berry men instantly cut the act and glared at Rachel.

"Hey. No. Don't look at her. I'm the one with lawyers for parents who has evidence on you two being major douchebags."

The taller man just scoffed. "You have no proof."

"So you don;t even deny it?"

"Hell no. That little girl is nothing but a selfish bitch, we beat her so she could learn how to actually listen for once!"

"She did not deserve you two beating her every time though! That is not what a parent does!"

"IT IS TO US. THAT LITTLE BITCH ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE."

"YES SHE IS." I stopped yelling and calmly pulled my phone out. "I just got you yelling at me about you beating her on my phone. Now. Are you going to let us go without me calling the cops or are you two going to make this harder on everybody?"

The men both looked at me with fear in their eyes while I raised my eyebrow.

The taller man just stood up straighter before his voice turned murderous. "If she leaves this house. She is never coming back."

I turned around and made Rachel start walking before I turned back to them in the doorway. "No problem, I'll make sure my girlfriend prospers without you two assholes around her." With that I slammed the door and walked to my car and got in with Rachel already in the passenger seat.

I gripped the wheel tightly while breathing heavily trying to calm myself enough to not go back in there and hit one of those men.

"Thank you." My eyes widened and I looked at Rachel who was looking at her hands. I took my right hand off the steering wheel before grabbing her left and rubbing circles into the back of it.

"No problem, it's what i'm here for."

"Did you mean to say that?"

"Say what?"

"Calling me your girlfriend."

"I did. Unless you changed your mind, which I totally understand."

She just smiled before scooting over to sit next to me (thank god I have an old car without a center console) and cuddling into my side. I looked up and saw the two Berry men staring at us through their window looking scandalized. I just smirked and turned the car on before backing out and flipping them off as we drove away.

I hummed happily as we drove to my house.

Yeah, I think Rachel staying with me is the best option for everyone involved.

**I actually do like the Berry men, not in this story obviously but in the show. It's just so easy to write them as the bad guys! **

**So I think there is going to be maybe one or two chapters after this one? Idk just one to tie up and loose ends, maybe even an epilogue a few years in the future. Who knows? I don't even know where I'm going with this one. It was originally going to be a one shot anyway lol im just winging it now. **


End file.
